STREETS AHEAD

Dublin’s dominance is still inextricably linked to veteran Cluxton - the most influential Gaelic footballer in history...

SINCE the 2017 All-Stars were announced last November, there has been one sure-fire way to start an argument — or at least spark a heated debate — in a Dublin city-centre pub.

All you have to do is make the observation that David Clarke deserved to be named as goalkeeper in the All-Stars football team.

It is safe to say the selection of the Mayo man over Stephen Cluxton did not go down well in the capital and it remains a thorny issue.

Cluxton is the most influential Gaelic footballer of all-time. He has changed the whole complexion of the sport.

However, no matter how many times that point is made, no matter how many articles are penned in praise of him, it never seems enough for a certain section of Dublin’s more unreasonable supporters.

There’s still a belief that Cluxton doesn’t get enough credit and they will point to last November’s slight –— or snub, depending on your viewpoint — as evidence.

Clarke was the best goalkeeper in the country last summer. Cluxton wasn’t. It doesn’t mean the Parnell’s man isn’t the greatest goalkeeper to play the game — or that, even at 36 years of age, he remains Jim Gavin’s most important player.

‘He’s the best player to have ever played the game in that position. There’s no doubt about that,’ Jim McGuinness observed last week.

‘I always make the point that when you’re going to play Dublin in the Championship, the very first problem to solve is Stephen Cluxton.

‘That’s a unique situation in team sport, where the goalkeeper is the guy you have got to have the biggest plan for. It’s normally the full-forward or the centre-forward or their strongest midfielder. But with Dublin, that’s the first conundrum.’

On the opening Super 8 weekend, when rare talents such as Damien Comer, David Clifford, Conor McManus, Daniel Flynn and Michael Murphy converge on Croke Park, most eyes will yet again be drawn to Cluxton.

It felt a little weird not to see him in the Dublin team for the Leinster football final — Evan Comerford deputised brilliantly — and for someone who has managed to pretty much avoid any injury since making his Championship debut against Longford back in 2001, it will be intriguing to see how Cluxton settles back into the cauldron that will be Croker tomorrow. That’s if Cluxton has returned to fitness.

The feeling is he has, but nobody knows for sure, given how information from the Dublin camp is so carefully managed and manipulated — remember, Cluxton was named to start against Laois.

If he does play, Cluxton will make his 94th Championship appearance on a historic evening when Gaelic football enters a brave new world. Fittingly, when he made his debut against Longford back in 2001, the GAA was bracing itself for another step into the unknown as that was the first summer of the qualifier system.

Given Cluxton has effectively changed the game in his 17-year career, it is interesting to recall his first appearance didn’t come with any bolt of lightning.

Regular goalkeeper Davey Byrne was injured in the lead-up to the Championship and Tommy Carr took a punt on Cluxton — who was the Under 21 keeper and hadn’t even played any League football up to that point. From such a start, greatness has grown.

It was around 2005 when Paul Caffrey experimented with the little-and-large combination of Shane Ryan and Ciaran Whelan in midfield that Cluxton started to come into his own. Ryan offered him a target on the wings that, more often that not, was always found with his left foot.

When Kerry annihilated Dublin’s startled earwigs in the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-finals, it sent Pat Gilroy back to the drawing board. He drew up a revamped defence-orientated gameplan with Cluxton as the key component.

Half-forwards were now expected to drop deep and take his kickouts on their chest. When Dublin finally ended their 16-year wait for Sam Maguire in 2011, that game reached its full fruition with Paul Flynn the goalkeeper’s go-to man in the final.

Two years later, the variation and accuracy of Cluxton’s kick-outs took Aidan O’Shea out of the AllIreland final and was the single biggest factor in Dublin’s victory.

For all the consternation over the slight to Cluxton last November, little is said about the fact he should have won Footballer of the Year in 2013, when he exerted the most influence over the entire season. Instead, it went to team-mate Michael Darragh Macauley.

One of the few criticisms levelled at Jim Gavin during his six years in charge is that he hasn’t adequately prepared for the time when his captain walks away.

That doesn’t look like happening any time soon but Cluxton is 36 and, those who know him claim that he is the sort of fella who will just decide one winter’s morning that he has won enough.

A string of substitute goalkeepers have departed the panel because they felt they weren’t getting a fair shake — including Shane Supple, who had all the attributes